Given that we had already seen a completed Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental on Saturday, the biggest remaining question for Sunday's premiere of the aircraft was how it would be painted.

And the paint scheme -- livery, in airplane speak -- made a splash when Boeing, after a warm-up comedy duo, thunder sticks, speeches, videos, smoke, timpani and hyperactive violin playing, dropped the curtain to reveal a white, red and orange aircraft in its Everett wide-body plant.

"Around the world, the combination of reds and oranges has powerful and positive meaning" associated "with prosperity good fortune and the promise of success," Shanahan said. "The colors symbolize a prosperous and bright future for both Boeing and our customers."

The 747-8 -- Boeing's latest, largest 747 -- could use some good fortune.

Boeing has orders for just 107 747-8s, including 33 of the Intercontinental, which is the passenger version. Lufthansa and Korean Air are the only airlines that have ordered the Intercontinental. The aircraft unveiled Sunday will go to a private customer, who presumably will repaint it.

Meanwhile, production and flight-test issues, along with diversion of resources to the troubled 787 Dreamliner program, have pushed back delivery of the first 747-8 Freighter from late 2010 to the middle of this year. Boeing is scheduled to start flying the first Intercontinental in early spring and deliver it in the fourth quarter of this year.

"The challenges that this program has faced have been well chronicled over the past couple of years," Elizabeth Lund, 747 vice president and deputy program manager, said Sunday.

But program employees "have overcome every hurdle, solved every problem and been up to every challenge," she said.

"This airplane will carry more people more cargo further farther more economically than any airplane in its class," Lund said. It's unclear whether she was including in this the Airbus A380, which is larger enough to be considered in a different class, but less economical per passenger, Boeing claims.

The 747-8 Intercontinental will seat 467 passengers in a three-class configuration, 51 more than the 747-400, which it is replacing, with a 13 percent lower cost to move a passenger one mile, and 30 percent less noise. The A380 seats 58 more passengers in a typical configuration.

Nico Buchholz, executive vice president, Lufthansa Group Fleet Management, described the 747-8 as the culmination of a fairy tale.

"Once upon a time there was an airline that wanted something more, more of an already efficient aircraft, the 747-400" he said, harking back to a 2002 meaning that was the genesis of the program.

At that meeting, Joe Sutter, the legendary Boeing engineer behind the original 747, said: "Just do it. We can do it," Buchholz recalled. "Thank you Joe, because 'Just do it' is behind the curtain."

In fact, Sutter is responsible for the airplane most associated with Boeing, Boeing Commerical Airplanes President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Albaugh said Sunday.

"This building might not exist if it wasn't for Joe," Albaugh said, noting that Sutter chose Boeing over an offer from the Douglas Aircraft Co. (later merged into McDonnell Douglas and then, yes, Boeing)

"Could you imagine where we'd be today if Joe had taken that job down at Douglas," Albaugh asked. "We could be having this rollout down at Long Beach" (Douglas' California hometown).

The new livery evokes the first 747, which Boeing painted red and white. But it's a very different airplane from that, and even the 747-400, which it is replacing.

"It's a leap forward in terms of technology," Buchholz said. "Sometimes it was difficult, but, again, we get a wonderful product."